The Moscow Times 1 May 2013
Two Russian tycoons will tap the prodigious cash flows of the country’s largest mining company to help complete their construction projects for next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, whose budget has spiraled to a record $50 billion.
Norilsk Nickel will put money into a ski resort and the Olympic village being built by its billionaire backers, Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska, in return for stakes in the two projects, three sources familiar with the matter said.
“As a result of a number of technical operations, Norilsk would make a commitment to contribute as a Sochi co-investor,” a source at Interros, the firm that manages Potanin’s interests, said Sunday.
But Potanin, architect of Russia’s 1990s privatizations in which he first acquired an interest in Norilsk, and Deripaska, main shareholder in aluminum major RusAl, has balked at the spiraling costs of the event.
Read more…
